天机不可泄漏 or “heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed”.
I’d bet many of you have heard of this phrase one time or another, especially either from a fortune teller or a feng shui master.
Want to know the real story behind it?
Back in ancient China, the usage of feng shui and astrology (bazi) are closely guarded secrets that only the ministers and the emperor are privy to. Knowledge of such is punishable by death. The only people who holds the actual calculations are a few imperial scholars and astronomers. And to prevent the knowledge from falling into the wrong hands and at the same time show their literacy prowess, the information is purposely written in poems and buried in complex prose so the common population will have a hard time “decoding” what is written, let alone use it, if anyone other than the authorised personnel ever get their hands on it. But the main reason is to protect the emperor from anyone else “reading” his life or using the palace feng shui against him.
By the way the emperor is known as 天子 or heaven’s son. See the connection?
But now in present times, after talking to clients and fellow colleagues, I noticed that the phrase 天机不可泄漏 or “heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed” is used either :
1) as an excuse for not being able to answer a tough question so as not to appear incompetent and “lose face”;
2) when there is no monetary benefits in doing so;
3) due to laziness as it may take time and effort to explain to the layman, which may tie-in to point 2 above.
